Housing

Our team have a history of working in Housing and in particular supporting and working with vulnerable individuals and families. Wendy, the Managing director, started her career with 22 years in Housing.

We provide a range of tools, training and support packages to meet your needs. Click either tab below 'Training' or 'Consultancy' to see more. Our most popular courses recently have been around having motivational conversations with clients as a result of the changes brought about by the Housing Reduction Act.

We have provided extensive support to housing providers around workforce issues which we know are key to successful delivery of services to vulnerable individuals and families.

Below is an outline of our training packages. A wide range of additional and bespoke packages can be developed as required, drawing on the knowledge and skills base of our team and trainers. Our training team will be happy to talk to you about your precise requirements.

Below is an outline of our consultancy packages. A wide range of bespoke support can be developed as required drawing on the knowledge and skills base of our team. We would be delighted to talk to you about your precise requirements.

Interface are delighted with the excellent report by The Rt. Hon. the Lord Laming CBE DL examining how the life chances of children in care can be transformed by protecting them from unnecessary involvement in the criminal justice system.

The chief of the Institute of Health Visiting (IHV) has warned ministers against ditching the five checks health visitors are currently required to carry out on children up to two-and-a-half years old.

Multi-agency inspections of how services work together to protect children within local authority areas will from next month focus on the quality of support for children living with domestic abuse, Ofsted has said.

The Local Government Association (LGA) said money earmarked for education in England is too often "disappearing into the back pockets of those in charge" and they are asking to be given powers to monitor the way academies spend government cash to ensure pupils do not miss out on vital funding.

The Family and Childcare Trust has completed their analysis on how funding of free early education and childcare for three and four year olds. Findings highlight that the formula does not prioritise those areas that most need to boost childcare places.

A study by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) found that eating breakfast, or just attending a club, improves academic performance in maths and English of pupils aged six and seven in just two months.

Research by the London School of Economics (LSE), Manchester University and York University found that poverty has increased since the coalition government came to power in 2010, and predicted it will get worse in the next five years.

ADCS Safeguarding Pressures research has provided evidence of trends in safeguarding activity and the provision of services to children and their families based on information from local authorities in five phases spanning 2007/8 to 2015/16.

Consideration of child sexual exploitation (CSE) as a possible form of abuse has been added to the draft of the skills new children’s social workers will be expected to display to gain approved practitioner status.

Initial analysis suggests that reforms to the special educational needs and disability (SEND) support system have helped to make the assessment process more family friendly, but has so far failed to improve the health and quality of life for children.

The Fostering Network has collated the views of foster carers through their State of the Nation survey. They found that ¾ of looked after children in the UK are cared for by foster families, meaning that improving the outcomes for children in care must start with improving foster care.

Tom Bennett (appointed in 2015 to advise the government on behaviour in schools) has call on the government to fund schools to create internal inclusion units to offer targeted early specialist intervention for children with behavioural problems.

An anaysis by EIF (Early Invention Foundation) shows children from less well-off families are more likely to experience emotional and behavioural problems at age 5 and do less well academically at age 10-16.

The government body responsible for public health, Public Health England (PHE) has said that it will ensure that local authorities fulfil their duty to provide health visitor checks for young children.

The Sutton Trust surveyed 1,361 teachers in its annual teacher polling through the National Foundation for Educational Research Teacher Voice Omnibus survey, highlighting how budget cuts are affecting schools across the country.

A recent strategy aiming to give children and young people a chance to have a voice and with the help of the Youth Justice Board as well as the Beyond Youth Custody programme it will consider the implications for work with young people leaving custody.

A DfE funded social care initiative has been evaluated by Dartington Social Research Unit and found to have "the potential to support many vulnerable families at low cost including a significant proportion of those children that were on the edge of the care system".

A report published by Play England explores how local, resident-led street play initiatives and programmes are being taken forward in disadvantaged areas of England, in response to concerns about the decline in children’s opportunities for outdoor play.

Councils are overspending on their children's social care budgets by more than £600m a year as they look to protect vulnerable groups amid cuts in central government funding, council leaders are warning.

An influential group of MPs that probes government policy on children and young people will focus on the issues of social justice and productivity over the term of the current parliament, it has been announced.

An alliance of early years leaders, academics and charities is recommending to the government to ensure a qualified early years teacher leads all nurseries in deprived areas within the next three years.

A report has been issues by OFSTED which is about the second joint targeted area inspection programme, which began in September 2016 and which examined ‘the multi-agency response to children living with domestic abuse’.

There are over 6,000 children who spend much of their childhood in residential special schools and colleges. A review of the experiences and outcomes of children and young people in residential special schools and colleges has now taken place.

The custody pathfinder pilots demonstrated that youth custody levels were cut by around 40%r cent in areas piloting a government scheme offering councils cash to find alternatives to prison. They helped ensure young people did not miss appointments and so risk going back to jail.

A report ‘One Hundred Days For Early Action’ from Community Links-led group Early Action Task Force argues that political parties have so far failed to effectively promote the importance of intervening earlier to support families and children.

Increasing numbers of cases involving children whose parents are planning to travel to areas of Syria controlled by Islamic State are coming before family courts, the country’s top family judge has warned.

The Early Intervention Foundation have published reports which state that children and young people may be at risk of gang involvement or violent lifestyles can be identified in children as young as seven.

We are proud to announce the launch of our new Level 4 training programme - Working with vulnerable children, individuals and families. This includes a recent webinar recording - so be sure to read more...

We are delighted that MP Tim Loughton has endorsed our new Level 4 training 'Working with vulnerable children, individuals and families' programme.He has also agreed to write a foreword for the comprehensive learner recourse explaining to learners how valuable their role is in transforming the lives of vulnerable families.

LGA’s Roy Perry says the improvement agenda in children’s services should be led by councils instead of the government threatening to parachute in outside experts and set up independent trusts to oversee children’s social care.

A study by the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) found that numbers of calls to councils about the safety and wellbeing of children have increased by nearly 12% cent in a single year.

Children’s services leaders have defended council child protection teams over suggestions they are not investigating safeguarding concerns raised by schools quickly enough.

A survey of head teachers found nearly one in five said social work assessments of children referred by schools to local authorities as a result of safeguarding concerns were not being completed within recommended timescales.

The Family Drug and Alcohol Court (FDAC) initiative is to be expanded across five more areas (Coventry, Kent and Medway, Plymouth, Torbay and Exeter, and West Yorkshire) after a £2.5m investment through the government’s Children's Social Care Innovation Fund.

To support housing providers and local authorities with statutory homelessness duties we have developed a range of tools, training and support packages. We provide a range of tools, training and support packages to meet your needs - read more...

We are a national provider of consultancy support for those working with vulnerable individuals and families. We aim to enhance capacity and expertise on a local level, focusing on priority areas of service delivery.

LB of Tower Hamlets wanted to embed an accredited program into their whole family working framework. This training was to coincide with changes in the authority and a will of LBTH to invest in their staff.

Barnsley were looking for a training provider to support their recent restructure to whole family working and implementation of its Family Support offer in both the Early Help and Troubled Families agenda.

Interface worked with Haringey Early Help Executive group members to develop a 3 module training programme for front line staff and those involved in the wider early help offer. The package of support was to integrate the new Early help workflow in to practice and embrace the culture change that this would bring. This bespoke course was delivered over 40 training days.

Cheshire West and Chester have a strong internal whole family working vision and agenda and were looking for a training organisation to support with further implementation and training for its wider partners.

Halton Borough Council is in the process of further developing and implementing an integrated multi-agency approach to supporting children, young people, families and vulnerable adults across the continuum from Early Intervention to statutory safeguarding services.

West London Zone is inspired by the Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ), a ‘cradle-to-college’ pipeline of support for children. The HCZ approach is to do ‘whatever it takes’ to help young people escape generational disadvantage – with the ambition to achieve a ‘tipping point’ whereby the whole community has a positive experience of learning, work and family life.

Darlington City Council are focussed on developing a whole council approach to the new responsibilities created by the Children and Families Act and the Care Act to consider the needs of the whole family, delivery of coordinated packages of support and the protection of children and young people from excessive or inappropriate caring roles.

Warrington Borough Council has implemented an integrated multi-agency approach to supporting children, young people, families and vulnerable adults across the continuum from Early Intervention to statutory safeguarding services.

Halton Borough Council is in the process of developing and implementing an integrated multi-agency approach to supporting children, young people, families and vulnerable adults across the continuum from Early Intervention to statutory safeguarding services.

We worked with the senior management team of a LA in the East to develop a bespoke programme for frontline managers, senior practitioners and their team members to target areas of weak practice and improve performance

Camden Council were looking for a training provider that could help embed their ‘Resilient Families’ Early Help agenda to a large number of multi-agency staff. We delivered a series of one-day introductory sessions to multi-agency professionals to raise awareness following the restructure of the Early Help offer for families in the borough.

Catch 22 identified that they wanted to provide evidenced-based training for their front-line staff to increase their engagement levels with young people and facilitate positive change through each face-to-face interaction.

Bracknell Forest Council worked in partnership with Hertfordshire County Council having received innovation funding from the Department for Education (DfE) to test out new and innovative ways of working across family safeguarding teams. Using Motivational interviewing approaches is core to their family safeguarding program.

Following a successful delivery of 4 Level 4 accredited programs to multi agency staff in the LB Tower Hamlets we were approached by Workpath to deliver a bespoke program to meet the needs of their workforce.

Interface delivered a one-day practice-based program to a range of staff in Brighton and Hove. The authority was looking for a skills-based program that would deliver a course to meet the needs of multi-disciplinary staff to update their knowledge including the latest research on brain development and offer practice examples to input and improve their interventions and practice.

LB of Hounslow were undergoing a restructure of their wider early help service and offer. The 4 day skills based training was offered to staff working in their targeted youth service, children’s centre’s and family support service. The training supported the new thinking and allowed staff to consider the changes in Hounslow, what was working well and recommendations for feedback to service managers.

We were commissioned to provide support for school leaders across Bracknell Forest around holding motivational conversations. This is a powerful technique in bringing about behaviour change and
improvement.

This document is an update on a project which built on a portfolio of work which PwC has undertaken with the National Academy for Parenting Practitioners over the past 2 years to help develop a deeper understanding of the parenting workforce.

An overview of the approaches to assessment taken by local authorities, with a detailed exploration of their successful family assessment processes. Written by Department of Education. Written by Department for Education.

This official statistics release contains figures for families receiving support from family intervention projects, local services which provide intensive support to families with multiple social, economic, health and behaviour problems. Written by the Department for Education.

Interface are trusted by…

“Interface provide high quality outputs, are responsive and demonstrate expert understanding and experience of both housing and family support services. They were very flexible and happy to meet our changing requirements during the course of the work.

Shelter

“It really has been an absolute pleasure to know you! I love your teaching style and cannot express how much I got out of the sessions. It was a therapeutic and extremely positive experience. I feel it will benefit my practise/ approaches with families so very much. I actually did not want it to end!

Level 4 Course, Tower Hamlets

“The trainer was very professional, timely and efficient – she was clearly experienced and confident.

All workers who attended benefited from the mixture of information giving / role play / & handouts to read and absorb once the training was finished. Following the training staff felt more familiar with the principles and the basics of MI conversations.

We would recommend Interface to other organisations.

Principal Social Worker, Bracknell Forest Council

“The Interface team were excellent to work with - professional, skilled, knowledgeable with great communication skills. The staff consulted with us really well and adapted any areas where necessary to give the training a localised feel.
The sessions were really informative and offered inter-disciplinary professionals the chance to share ideas and talk about any barriers in a safe environment. Celebrating success was key throughout and staff really enjoyed the group sessions as well as learning from them.
We offered this to staff who were or were prepared to be CAF Lead Professional in order to boost their confidence and skills. I would offer this to others if the opportunity arises in the future and would recommend it to other areas.

Think Family Principal Manager

“Our approach to early help was inadequate as was our Troubled Families programme, overall we were not fit for families and as a result we were failing. Interface worked alongside us as we built our new Early Help offer, enabling external trouble shooting, facilitation of the identification of solutions and growing practitioners that had all the skills but were lacking in confidence and application. Interface worked alongside us. They were excellent and professional throughout. The outcomes were excellent with a recent Ofsted inspection praising within our Early Help teams.

Elizabeth Broadhurst, Troubled Families Coordinator (Norfolk)

“We approached Interface to discuss the delivery of their Supervision training in-house for our organisation. Their proposed solution allowed for us to tailor the training to exactly meet our needs. The trainers delivery was engaging and inclusive. She used lots of relevant and practical examples imparting her extensive knowledge. Delegates left the training with specific individual plans which should have a positive impact on their practice of supervision.

Wendy Such (Parenting Coordinator, Bracknell Forest)

“Many thanks for the report, the work that went into it and the slides. I hope you are all having a well-deserved rest! Please know that the work will result in positive change and that you will have been instrumental in putting us on the right path.

“We set a very challenging timetable for the piece of work we commissioned. Interface developed an approach which both met our time frames, but also provided an incredibly robust and challenging assessment. The combination of the 2 associates with different backgrounds was a benefit to the project and outcomes as it meant we received challenge from a number of angles.

Project Manager Children and Families Commissioning Team

“We felt that Interface listened to our needs and that of our clients and they translated our vision into a product of high standard and quality. The outcome of the work was achieved, we were able to obtain Interface support even when our contract with them ended and we feel that Interface is an organisation that genuinely cares and desires the best outcome for their clients.

Kineara Housing

“Interface provided a high quality and responsive service, demonstrating expert understanding of family support services. They played an important role in assisting our organisation with the development an important new service.